All posts tagged ‘young adult’

In geek circles, author Mark Frost might be best known for creating the short-lived Twin Peaks television series with David Lynch, but his career is long and varied. He’s worked in film and television, and penned a number of adult novels, but his most recent project is a fantasy novel for young adults.

In The Paladin Prophecy, Will West grapples with the mysterious actions of his parents, his unique physical and mental abilities, and finds himself on the run from some unsavory characters. I’ve just begun reading the book, but I can tell already that the plot twists and turns will keep readers guessing as Will maneuvers his strange circumstances with the help of the his dad’s list of rules. [Rule #156: Always listen to your dad.] I asked Mark about The Paladin Prophecy, his writing process, and yes, Twin Peaks.

Kris Bordessa: The Paladin Prophecyis your first book for young adults. I’m a fan of young adult fiction so I’m thrilled, but what prompted you to pen a novel for teens?

Image: Random House

Mark Frost: This book just moved lock, stock and barrel into my mind and took over one day. I don’t think I consciously decided to write for the young adult audience, my subconscious decided for me. I had something I needed to process, and say, about my experience of growing up and this became the vehicle for it. When a story grabs the steering wheel like that I’ve learned the best thing to do is sit back, don’t hit the brakes and just try to keep the car heading down the road.

KB: Compared to your adult novels, how did your voice change to accommodate a younger audience? Or did it?

MF: I did experience a learning curve in terms of the prose style and tone, but the voice of the characters was there from the beginning and I think they have a lot to say to younger readers. It’s a turbulent and tumultuous time of life and I’ve done my best to shine some light on it. I was starved for role models during those years and I hope readers will find some amongst this group.

Mothership is the story of an unwed teen in the near future who is just trying to get through her pregnancy so she can realize her dream of working on another planet. She’s as snarky as the main character in Juno but instead of dealing with relatives and adoptive parents, Elvie is attending a special school for unwed mothers in orbit. And then things get worse as the satellite where her school is located comes under siege.

Mothership came out on July 10th and is available at all major book retail outlets.

Several years ago, author Meg Cabot gave the keynote luncheon speech at a writer’s conference that I was attending. She talked about how when she decided to write a young adult series, she had to choose between her two favorite teenage daydreams: being a princess or go exploring in space ala Star Trek.

As I was reading Mothership by Martin Leicht and Isla Neal last week, it struck me as exactly the kid of space adventure that Meg Cabot might write, and I mean that in a good way.

The voice is similar to the snark in Cabot’s bestselling Princess Diaries series but the adventure is quite a bit different. The heroine of Mothership is an unwed teen in the near future who is just trying to get through her pregnancy so she can realize her dream of working on another planet. She’s as snarky as the main character in Juno but instead of dealing with relatives and adoptive parents, Elvie is attending a special school or unwed mothers in orbit. And then things get worse.

Tokyo Heist by Diana Renn is a young adult novel that follows sixteen-year-old Violet, who finds herself in the middle of an art heist. Violet is swept to Japan and attempts to unravel the mystery of a missing and previously unknown Van Gogh painting. In the meantime, she must evade the Japanese mafia and her artist father out of danger.

Anime and manga are a big part of the story, as Violet is a big fan of both. A budding artist, she writes and draws her own manga, Kimono Girl, throughout the book. When I was younger, I was a huge fan of anime which I think helped me enjoy this book even more. While Tokyo Heist is mainly a mystery, it does highlight the strained relationship Violet has with her father.

The relationship grows and changes as the book goes on, which adds another level of complexity to this highly engaging novel.

Tokyo Heist is recommended for ages twelve and up. As an adult, I did enjoy watching the mystery unfold. I would recommend this book to any reader who loves mysteries, art, anime or manga. Tokyo Heist is available in hardcover, Kindle and Nook versions.

My two teens really enjoyed Scott Westerfeld’s series Leviathan. I recently read and was impressed by Catherine Fisher’s Incarceron. Both are part of a growing section in the Young Adult world of books. Steampunk is a genre just getting started. If you’re unsure what steampunk is, check out the some GeekMom posts about it.

Not all authors set out to make a book in the steampunk genre (many don’t know the word either) nevertheless, their stories fit right in. Garth Nix wrote one of my favorite series, Keys to the Kingdom which has a definite steampunk feel.

The film Hugo is an adaptation of the steampunk book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Graphic novels are a great way to take in steampunk since the visual aspect is so strong. Girl Genius by Philip Foglio comes well recommended by many of my teen and adult friends.

I asked my librarian friend Amy (thanks!) if she could recommend some YA Steampunk fiction. Here is her list:

Hello. My name is Patricia and I’m the mother of a 9-year-old reluctant reader.

“Hi Patricia!”

I have to say…I don’t have the most happy-motherly thoughts about having a son who doesn’t enjoy reading the way I did when I was younger. In fact, last week I had received a note from my oldest son’s teacher about how far behind he is on his Accelerated Reader testing for the quarter. He got the most logical, rational, inspirational pep talk I could muster last night.

It isn’t that my son isn’t able to read. He reads really well and is very good at the comprehension assessments when he applies himself. He just doesn’t enjoy it as much as doing math and science work. And when you layer on the pressures of having to read a prescribed amount every nine weeks, it’s become a delicate balance for me: inspiring your son to WANT to read vs. forcing him read to fulfill school requirements.

In late August the GeekMoms received an invitation to receive a complimentary signed copy of Tommy Greenwald’s book Charlie Joe Jackson’s Guide to NOT Reading for review, targeting 9-to-12-year-old reluctant readers. I raised my hand emphatically (okay, so it was an online “virtual” raising of my hand) and proclaimed that I have the perfect candidate! My 9-year-old.

Charlie Joe Jackson is young man who is defending his lifelong disdain for reading. He comes up with several schemes to get others to read his books for him, and those plans all seem to backfire. Over the course of the story he’s weaving lie after lie to get through his reading requirements, and when the principal finally finds out about the numerous schemes he’d concocted, he is told to write a 150 page book as punishment.

So this is what the book is, actually: the product of Charlie Joe’s punishment. He writes an account of the events that led up to his writing the book, and intertwined through the book were assorted lists of ways to get out of reading, and hints at how to find reading without even reading books (such as reading ticket stubs, opening/closing movie credits, and texts to/from friends).

My oldest son really enjoyed the book. It’s the least-illustrated chapter book I think he’s read to date (he’s been reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Captain Underpants and Big Nate books this past year), and liked the lists of reading tips throughout. When I had asked what the book was about, he told me it was a book full of tips on how to get out of having to read. That seemed to be what he remembered the most.

I was suspicious of that account so this week I read the book myself. Yes, there are TWENTY-FIVE lists of “not reading” tips, but the story is much more. It was a great account of “real life” for a pre-teen (tween?) young man in middle school. Among the main story about trying not to do his reading assignments, you learn about Charlie Joe’s circle of friends, his interests, his family (who he loves and respects, which was a great trait to give a tween-novel hero), and his two dogs Moose and Coco.

I got a little skittish about Charlie Joe texting friends, having a Facebook account and playing Call of Duty on the XBox at his age. I’m sure lots of middle school boys are doing exactly that, but I simply don’t want to think about my 9-year-old wanting to do any of that in 3-4 years. Charlie Joe is also a fan of The Simpsons, which not all parents would appreciate. My oldest son loves The Simpsons, but we watch it as a family with a lot of caution (most of the time, my husband and I watch the episode first).

Since I don’t have middle school kids of my own, I wasn’t sure what to make of middle school-aged characters in the book being Beatles fans and comparing the casts of the 1975 vs. 1996 Broadway productions of Chicago. I’m convinced that Mr. Greenwald is tapping into his own sons’ geeky interests to come up with some of the conversations. I’d be tickled pink if my sons took an interest in Broadway history by the time they’re in middle school! Charlie Joe owns a rare Beatles Yesterday and Today “Butcher Cover” from 1966, which he trades to a girl so she would date his geeky friend. I couldn’t believe that one! If I was Charlie Joe’s mother, I’d have that cover in a SAFE DEPOSIT BOX!

(Wait a second — I was a Beatles fan when I was 12 years old! Okay, I shouldn’t be so surprised….)

Having married a Long Islander, it was cute to see situational references to New York and New England: the boys played lacrosse together and there was even a reference to a Carvel Fudgie the Whale ice cream cake!

In summary, this is a great book for a 9-to-12 year old who is having trouble getting inspired to read. I felt that Charlie Joe Jackson could be my oldest son in 3 to 4 years, judging from his love of baseball, video games and geeky interests. Charlie Joe’s teachers knew he had the potential to be great, and worked together to challenge him by having him write a 150-page book.

I had every reason in the world not to read Harry Potter. I just wasn’t going to do it. Oh, people told me I ought to. “You like hobbits! You like magic! You like elves!” But I didn’t see the point. I had my beloved books. And by the time the craze was really hitting, I was in college. College kids have no need for silly books about schools of magic, for goodness’ sake. I was an English major. I had literature to read.

Right?

So how was it that I ended up walking to the library one afternoon and, instead of getting books and journals to study, I picked up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone? I’m not sure. I was fully prepared to hate it. To loathe it. To laugh and point and mock. To call up my Harry Potter fan friends and ask them why exactly they thought I, a serious student of the English Language, would ever stoop to read such drivel.

But I didn’t do any of those things. Instead, I kept reading. And reading. And reading. The next morning (since I stayed up all night reading the first book) I marched over to the library to get the next one. Then the third. The fourth, that wasn’t available. I had to get it from a friend. I dropped by her dorm room, kind of strung out, begging for the book and then bobbing my head, thanking her profusely when she handed it over. Ah, that smooth dust jacket. I can still remember.

So, suffice it to say, the books hooked me. They hooked me like books hadn’t in a long time. At that point in my life I really needed something like Harry Potter. Something to remind me of the simplicity of good story-telling, about magic and whimsy. Sure, Rowling commits some serious crimes against adverbs. She takes a great deal from medieval mythology and legend; her Latin isn’t exactly polished.

But you know what? None of that mattered when I was reading. Because for that week during midterms, during which I should have been studying, I was transported somewhere else. I really wanted to enroll at Hogwarts. I was a kid again. Worrying about grades and dorm-room drama, all that just melted away for a time.Continue Reading “GeekMom Rewind: The Reluctant Harry Potter Fan Looks Back” »